Salal

A photo essay.

Salal is a resilient understory shrub found in coastal forests from British Columbia to southern California. It is notable for its dark green, oval leaves and its black, berry-like fruits, which serve as food for a variety of animals, including us. Native Americans have made great use of salal as medicine, food, and dye for eons.

Unlike the deciduous vine maple leaves, which strictly adhere to an annual fall ritual, salal is an evergreen. Yet despite its perennial status and relative hardiness, the plant’s leaves regularly develop spots and discoloration for various reasons, including fungal infections, pest infestations, and environmental factors. Thusly, it’s not uncommon to find individual leaves or entire plants fighting a losing battle for life in quite the colorful fashion.

Death isn’t always accompanied by dignity. And it isn’t always witnessed, noticed, or recognized for its levels and layers of complexity and even beauty. But sometimes it is. Here’s an assortment of salal leaf mortem mosaics, all gathered from a recent walk on Whalen Island.